Mark Thomas

Mark Thomas - The editor and big chief of The Dubrovnik Times. Born in the UK he has been living and working in Dubrovnik since 1998, yes he is one of the rare “old hands.” A unique insight into both British and Croatian life and culture, Mark is often known as just “Englez” or Englishman. He is a traveller, a current affairs freak and a huge AFC Wimbledon fan.

Croatia, together with Greece, Italy, and Spain, had one of the lowest rates of employment in 2018 even though it surpassed the target set for 2020, said a Eurostat report released on Thursday.

In 2018 the employment rate of people aged 20 to 64 in Croatia stood at 65.2 percent or 1.6 percentage points higher than in 2017. Only Greece and Italy had a lower rate, 59.5 percent and 63 percent respectively. Spain too was among this group with a rate of 67 percent.

Almost half of the EU member states had employment rates of more than 75 percent, with Sweden registering the highest rate of 82.6 percent. In 2018, the employment rate of people aged 20 to 64 in the European Union (EU) stood at 73.2 percent, as against 72.2 percent in 2017.

Croatia surpassed the target rate of 62.9 percent as envisaged in the European strategy for 2020.

The employment rate of persons aged 55 to 64 in the EU has grown steadily, from 38.4 percent in 2002 to 58.7 percent in 2018.

Croatia, along with Luxembourg and Greece is among those EU countries with the lowest employment rate of this age group (42.8%). In 2017 that rate was 40.3 percent.

Croatians are far from excited about the upcoming European Parliament elections in May with only 17 percent stating that they would bother to vote, according to a Eurobarometer survey.

Across the whole of the European Union roughly a third of citizens said that they were planning to vote in the elections, which will be held between the 23rd and 26th of May. Croatians are seemingly completely uninterested in the work of the EU and even their MEP’s as the results from this survey clearly show. Even though Croatia is the youngest member of the European Union, joining in July 2013, they seem very apathetic about the future of the EU parliament.

Although ironically 62 percent of Croatian quizzed in the Eurostat survey thought that membership was a positive thing for the country. And when asked in the survey if they were in favour of a Brexit-style exit of the European Union just over 50 percent of Croatians said that they wanted to stay in the EU.

The turnout in the last elections for the European Parliament in Croatia, in 2014, was 25 percent but the rate among young people was only 13 percent.

- Due to the activities of the organization of the Dubrovnik Half Marathon in the historic core of Dubrovnik on Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28, all deliveries must be completed before 7:00am – commented the City of Dubrovnik in a statement.

This weekend is one of the biggest weekends of sport in the city as the DU Motion events come to town. The highlight is the half marathon, but there will also be a 5K race and a race around the walls.

And because of the races there will be special traffic regulations, on the 28th when the Half Marathon is held. The organisers have announced that from 9:00am to 1:30pm there will be a ban on traffic using many of the roads around the Old City of Dubrovnik as well as roads leading out to the Port of Dubrovnik.

One of the absolute main attractions of Dubrovnik, the iconic Cable Car, was forced to close down today after the Excelsa Real Estate, the company that owns and operates the cable car, lost a dispute in court. The Customs Administration closed the cable car this morning until further notice for non-payment of concession fees.

Speaking to Dubrovacki Vjesnik the Mayor of Dubrovnik, Mato Franković commented that “This is proof that how a legal country functions. Without a concession the cable car is closed and there is simply no denial and disrespect for clearly defined decisions. I hope that Excelsa Real Estate will pay their debts from the past and after that a concession will be signed which is mutually satisfactory for both sides.” When questioned how long he thought the cable car would be closed he answered, “I hope the situation will be solved in the period of 20 days to one month and that the cable car will be in operation again. I would like to point out that in future all the money that the city earns from the cable car will be invested into sports infrastructure.”

"We are extremely disappointed that today the Customs Administration closed the cable car on Srđ, after nine years of waiting from the Republic of Croatia and the City of Dubrovnik for a concession," commented Excelsa Real Estate today after Dubrovnik's Cable Car was forced to stop working. Adding that “This decision will jeopardize a significant number of jobs at Excelsa Real Estate and its 343 business partners, of which 130 are from Dubrovnik.”

The Director of Excelsa Real Estate, Anto Rusković pointed out that "We are proud of this investment because the cable car has generated significant economic benefits over the past nine years, not only to our owners, but also to other business entities, and also to the community itself. Since the very beginning of Excelsa Real Estate has contributed more than HRK 122 million in taxes and contributions to the state budget, mainly from the cable car. “

One of the most popular places for parking and waiting to pick someone up from the Old City is Dubrovnik has now been blocked up with bollards.

This move by the City of Dubrovnik has now made this busy intersection a lot safer as drivers will now be able to see before pulling out. It will, on the other hand, not be so popular with drivers who are used to illegally parking on this spot and waiting to pick passengers up.

This is just a small part of the current infrastructure project of the City of Dubrovnik with the aim to make driving safer around the city.

The summer tourist season is slowly starting and with it the unemployment rate in Croatia is continuing to drop. New figures released by the State Statistics Office show that the unemployment rate dropped once again in March and now stands at 9.5 percent.

At the end of February, the rate was 10.2 percent meaning that an extra 8,600 people found work. At the end of March there were 1.38 million people in employment in Croatia, a 0.6 percent increase over the previous month. Undoubtedly the upcoming tourist season combined with the demographic issues that Croatia faces have meant that unemployment is again falling.

Gale force southerly winds started yesterday in the wider Dubrovnik region bringing with them “dirty rain” from the Sahara. With rolling seas, rain and completely overcast skies the summer seemed miles away yesterday as rain fell for most of the day. The southerly winds and unsettled weather is expected to continue today and then tomorrow the blue skies and sunshine will return.

These strong southwest winds came from northern Africa, from Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, and scooped up huge amounts of dust and sand and then, along with the rain, dumped them all over Dubrovnik and the wider region.

Cars covered with orange spots, windows dotted with sand blotches and twisted umbrellas sticking from rubbish bins, this Sahara “dirty rain” is not an uncommon occurrence in Dubrovnik.

Anyone who’s walked the cobbled streets of the historic Old City, or marvelled at the ancient stone facades or climbed to the top of the Srđ Mountain to breathe in the 360 degree views will know that Dubrovnik is a photographer’s dream. And according to the popular website Big Seven Travel the most Instagrammable European place in 2019 is Dubrovnik!

The top fifty most Instagrammable places in Europe in 2019 is headed by Dubrovnik with the website commenting “As George Bernard Shaw once said, “those who seek paradise on Earth should come to Dubrovnik.” With its winding streets, cliffside beach bars and UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Old Town, it’s no wonder Dubrovnik is such a popular spot. Looking down across the terracotta rooftop tiles that cover the city with the sea in the background is unbeatable.”

The website final results of their survey were based on a combined score of Instagram data, travel expert’s votes and reader opinions, with 30 percent of the overall score coming from hashtags, 30 percent from judges, 30 percent from surveys and 10 percent from an overview. In total 1.5 million were involved in the social media audience of Big 7 media.